SENSORINEURAL HEARING LOSS

Sensorineural Hearing Loss (SNHL) is associated with the deformalities in vestibulocochlear nerve or in the inner ear. These heaing loss may vary from minimal to comprehensive deafness. The major cause of abnormality in cochlea is due to the dysfunction of hair cells. This may be because of congenital or injury caused during the life. Whether by birth or an accident, SNHL can be controlled using hearing aids and cochlear implants.

Hearing Aids

Hearing aid is an electronic device that collects sound through a microphone, dispatchs through an amplifier. The amplifier improves the intensity of the signals and passes them to ear, through a speaker affixed to the system. It can be used in the back of the ear, in the ear or entirely inside the ear canal. There are two variants of hearing aids available on the markets – analog & digital.

Analog aids are versatile and meet the requirements of each user. They are also cheap. Whereas digital hearing aid transforms sounds into numerical code ahead of amplifying them.

Cochlear Implants

Cochlear implant is a tiny compound electronic device. This device becomes handy for those who are enirely deaf. The device consists of two parts: external & internal. The external portion is placed behind the ear and the other is surgically placed beneath the skin. However this implant never restore an individual’s normal hearing, rather it gives useful depiction of sounds in the environment and recognize the speech.